Laguna Seca’s Monterey Reunion turns spotlight on Japan’s racing heritage

From Tamagawa Speedway to IMSA’s turbocharged Nissan era, Laguna Seca’s 2026 Monterey Motorsports Reunion traces a century of Japanese competition machinery through rally cars, prototypes, touring cars and motorcycles brought back into serious motion

Iconic orange-green Mazda prototype leading blue Nissan ZX-Turbo on track.

Laguna Seca gives itself to Japan for the Motorsports Reunion – with machinery from Mazda, Nissan and more

Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion

June 2, 2026

We in the west tend to think Japanese motor sport didn’t really exist until the fledgling Honda motorcycle team first appeared at the 1959 Isle of Man TT races – before going on to win both the 125cc and 250cc world championships a mere two years later.

In reality, Japan had become hooked on competition of the two and four-wheeled variety as far back as the 1920s when horse tracks, wasteland, mountain roads and quiet city streets were first adopted as unofficial race circuits. The country didn’t get its first purpose-built venue until 1936 after Seattle-raised Gunji Fujimoto returned to his homeland and led the creation of Tokyo’s Tamagawa Speedway.

It was there that Soichiro Honda was badly injured during the inaugural race when he crashed his turbocharged Ford – an incident said to have spurred him on to design and build meticulously engineered vehicles. It was Honda–san, too, who was the brains behind the creation of the celebrated Suzuka circuit which opened in 1962.

Black-and-white close-up of man in glasses and Honda cap, smiling.

Honda founder Soichiro Honda

And it was also during the early ’60s that Japanese racing drivers such as Tetsu Ikuzawa and Kunimitsu Takahashi first began to garner global attention. Ikuzawa is celebrated for his epic drive behind the wheel of a Prince Skyline GT S54 at the Japanese Grand Prix in 1964, achieving a third-place finish that is said to have been the foundation of the Nissan Skyline’s legendary status as a competition car. Takahashi, meanwhile, was the winner of the first Japanese motorcycle grand prix in 1961 – but a serious accident in ’62 saw a switch to cars which led to him developing a tail-out driving style that some say gave rise to the first ‘drifting’ events for which the country has since become famous.

With all that history and Japan’s decades-long involvement in all branches of racing, it’s no surprise that the theme of this year’s Monterey Motorsports Reunion will celebrate some of the country’s greatest automotive hits.

Held at Laguna Seca, the Motorsports Reunion dates back to 1974, when a mere 66 cars turned out to take part in on-track events that made a serious contribution to the atmosphere around Monterey as a sideshow to the more genteel Pebble Beach Concours.

As the decades passed, the number of entries grew exponentially to the point that a limit of around 400 was imposed in 2020, both on safety grounds and to make the event more enjoyable for all those concerned.

An undisputed highlight of Monterey Car Week and still its largest happening, the Motorsports Reunion is often described as “a museum springing to life” – and is the only one at which cars are seen being driven on the absolute limit in serious racing competition.

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Never before, however, has the event set out to celebrate the cars of a single country and, if the idea is well received this year, its focus on Japan could see other countries being similarly selected in the future.

“The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion continuously evolves to reflect the growing interest in all forms of motor sport,” says Mel Harder, president and general manager of Laguna Seca race track. “This year’s aim is to celebrate the icons of Japanese motor sport. The only previous time we have highlighted a Japanese marque was in 2018 when we shone the spotlight on Nissan.”

Fittingly, 2026’s grand marshal will be the celebrated car designer Peter Brock, who is best known as the man behind the ’split-windscreen’ Corvette Sting Ray and the Le Mans-winning Shelby Daytona Coupé – but also helped to establish the Datsun name in America.

Nissan R92CP Group C prototype race car number 83

Far East ferocity from F1, rally, IndyCar, NASCAR and endurance will descend on California, including a Nissan GTP ZX-T

Nissan

In 1968 Brock hired Illinois-born John Morton to drive for the new BRE Datsun team, which put the 240Z on the map by dominating the SCCA C Production class to win the 1970 and ’71 National Championships, as well as winning the 2.5 Trans-Am category in ’71 and ’72 with the 510 Bluebird.

A special curated selection of some of the most significant Japanese race cars and motorcycles will be presented in the heritage display to take visitors through the country’s involvement in a century of competition.

Among those on show (and also taking to the Tarmac) will be one of the legendary Toyota Celica ST185s, the turbo-charged, four-wheel-drive weapon that was created specifically to homologate the design to compete in the World Rally Championship.

Yamaha racing heritage

Bikes will feature

Prepared by Toyota Team Europe in Cologne, Germany, the works ST185s were developed from the ST165 that made its WRC debut in the 1988 Tour de Corse and took its first victory the following year in Australia.

The ST185 won Toyota the World Drivers’ Championship in 1992, and both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ championships in ’93 and ’94, establishing the marque’s long-term WRC dominance.

“Grand marshal Peter Brock helped establish the Datsun name in America”

Also on show and on track will be a 1992 example of the Toyota Eagle MkIII (one of the most successful of all IMSA prototypes and the winner of 21 out of 27 races), the actual BRE Datsun 510 driven by John Morton to victory in the aforementioned 1971 SCCA championship, and the remarkable Honda HSV-010 GT from 2010.

Older individual in blazer holding detailed red-and-white racing car miniature outdoors.

Car designer Peter Brock is grand marshal

Created to meet new rules requiring all GT500 cars to have a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive set-up, the HSV-010 GT took the Super GT championship laurels in its first season in the hands of Loïc Duval and Takashi Kogure. The car remained in use for three further seasons, with 2011 and 2013 wins in the Suzuka 1000Kms.

Perhaps the most spectacular Japanese offering of all, however, will be a Nissan GTP ZX-T , an example of the IMSA GT Porsche-beater of 1985-90. This particular car, chassis 8801, clocked up no fewer than nine poles, 10 wins and seven fastest laps in 1989.

 

Japan’s pioneer racers to roar again at Laguna Seca

Look out for these Mazda and Honda legends

Mazda 787B Renown race car number 55 on track

MAZDA 787B

Groundbreaking and history-making, the Mazda 787B Group C racer of 1991 became the first Japanese car to win Le Mans and the only car to win without a typical, reciprocating engine. Instead, it used Mazda’s 2.6-litre, four-rotor Wankel motor that, while not capable of the same pace as its traditionally powered competitors, ensured an inherent reliability that enabled Johnny Herbert, Volker Weidler and Bertrand Gachot to scorch to victory in the 1991 event, completing 362 laps – two more than the second-placed TWR Jaguar XJR-12. Herbert didn’t get to revel in his victory straight away. As the driver who took on the last stint – and having failed to sleep throughout the 24 hours – he got out of the car and keeled over from exhaustion.

Honda RA272 Formula 1 car number 11 driven by Ginther

HONDA RA272

Honda didn’t sell its first production road car until 1963 – but just two years later designer Yoshio Nakamura’s RA272 rolled out of the competition department to make an assault on that year’s F1 World Championship. Developed from the previous year’s RA271, it featured exotic materials to reduce weight by 27kg (to just 498kg) and was powered by an upgraded version of the original’s 1.5-litre V12. American Richie Ginther was signed as Honda’s lead driver, with the less experienced Ronnie Bucknum as number two. Not until the last race of the season, however, did the RA272 enjoy its finest hour when Ginther made it the first Japanese car to win an F1 race, taking the chequered flag at the Mexican GP after leading the event for all 65 laps.

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